Orbital surveys confirmed the assumptions of archaeologists about the location of a pair of the famous Egyptian Sphinx. Scientists estimate that the headless statue sank into the sand to a depth of about five meters. In the near future, researchers promise to unearth a sphinx's girlfriend in Egypt. The main ideologist of the theory of the existence of the second sphinx was the Egyptian archaeologist, researcher and expert in the art of the era of the pharaohs Basam Rudwan al-Shamaa.
In his opinion, "if we take into account the way of thinking of the ancient Egyptians, who firmly followed the principle of symmetry, then the presence in Giza of a lonely sphinx figure seems very strange." The archaeologist claims that parallel to the now-famous lonely statue of the Great Sphinx, also called the "Father of Fear" and created about 4.5 thousand years ago during the reign of Pharaoh Khafre (Khafren), there should be a similar size (about 73 m in length and about 20 m in height) and the shape of a statue of a sphinx-woman, the so-called "Mother of Fear".
There are several arguments for this hypothesis.
First, the researcher notes, the "Father of Fear" guards the peace of the Sphinx Temple located at its foot. But parallel to the Sphinx Temple is another temple, called the Temple in the Valley. If you follow the principle of symmetry, it should also be guarded by the sphinx.
Secondly, the surface of the earth in the area where the "Mother of Fear" is supposed to be located is several meters higher than the place where the Great Sphinx stands. "It is logical to assume that the statue is simply hidden from our eyes under the thickness of the sand," says ash-Shamaa.
In addition to these two not quite strict arguments, there is also more weighty evidence of the existence of the monument, gleaned from historical sources. One of them is a granite stele located between the front paws of the Great Sphinx and tells about the first restoration of the statue, made presumably a thousand years after its creation by Pharaoh Thutmose IV. “On the stele, in the upper part, there are two statues of the sphinx, and not one, as it would be logical to assume. In addition, the text contains a hieroglyph for destruction or irreversible loss of something. Most likely, we are talking about the sphinx depicted on the left on the stele, whose head is crowned with a metal crown,”says ash-Shamaa.
According to the archaeologist, it was this crown that caused the destruction and oblivion of the monument. The second historical source, which speaks of the once existed statue and its destruction, is the text of a limestone tablet found during excavations near the pyramids (now kept in the National Museum of Egypt).
“The speech in this written monument is that lightning struck the statue of the sphinx and destroyed it. The head of the second, now lost, sphinx was decorated with a crown made of metal, which, by the way, is confirmed by the image on the stele. Lightning hitting the crown shattered the head of the statue. It collapsed on its front paws and damaged them,”the Egyptian archaeologist said. According to him, the ancient Egyptians decided not to restore the statue destroyed by the "will of heaven" because of their superstitious fear of heavenly punishment.
Promotional video:
The last arguments of the researcher were the pictures taken recently from the American space satellite. Just in the alleged location of the statue, called al-Shamaa, that is, parallel to the Great Sphinx and behind the temple in the valley, the photographs clearly show the presence of a certain limestone body in the soil, apparently processed by man.
The researcher is sure that the statue lies relatively shallow under the sand, about five meters. “I believe that someday the“Mother of Fear”will see the light of day and in gratitude will reveal to the world new amazing facts from the history of mysterious and distant Ancient Egypt,” says ash-Shamaa.
The presence of five rather impressive arguments really leaves hope that the second sphinx will be found. But the fact that he will be female is still only a guess. Still, most often in Egyptian art, according to the accepted canon, the sphinxes were depicted as male creatures (and the Egyptian word for the sphinx itself is masculine, in contrast to the accepted Greek analogue). In addition, nothing in the known sources indicates that the destroyed statue had any signs of femininity.